The Porter Redevelopment Commission voted 4-0 Tuesday to exercise its last
contractual option with Chesterton to purchase additional sewage capacity at
the latter’s treatment plant for a fixed $197,400.

The 2011 deadline to do so is Sept. 1. Future purchases will have to be
negotiated separately.

But what about retroactive ones?

Porter didn’t make an allowable purchase in 2009 and now wants to explore
its options. To that end town attorney Greg Sobkowski was authorized to open
discussions with Chesterton town attorney Charles Lukmann.

Porter director of engineering Matt Keiser said Chesterton officials never
replied to Porter’s recent letter about the matter so commission member
Bruce Snyder suggested a more direct approach.

Although Porter is interested in the 2009 capacity buy, commission member
Trevin Fowler said, “To pull another 200k out of our account is a concern.”

Member LeAnn McCrum said maybe permission can be gained to defer the 2009
purchase until a later date; Fowler suggested a possible negotiated payment
plan.

Keiser submitted a revised Porter sewer-needs analysis Tuesday showing
Porter now has 809,000 gallons per day capacity allocated by Chesterton and
is using 560,580 gpd currently. An additional 183,392 gpd above the paid
allocation is the future shortage projected.

IDEM gets study
first

Keiser said consultant Weaver Boos is giving final in-house review to the
results of additional environmental testing at the 32-acre Brickyard site on
Beam Street the Redevelopment Commission purchased for $350,000.

Voting 4-0 with member Al Raffin absent, the commission agreed to have
Weaver Boos submit its completed report directly to the Indiana Department
of Environmental Management, which ordered additional groundwater testing
after the town’s initial sampling was done.

The commission will await IDEM’s sign-off before receiving the report
itself. Snyder said doing so will eliminate questions about the commission’s
interpretation of the data, and member Michele Bollinger said IDEM will
validate Weaver Boos’ findings.

After the meeting Sobkowski said, once submitted to it, the report will
become a public document available through IDEM. Keiser said it could take
15-60 days for the agency to review the test results.

Currently under construction is the separate Brickyard hike/bike trail, a
portion of which is being built on the southbound travel lane of Sexton
Avenue on the east perimeter of the Brickyard parcel.

Keiser said found buried under Sexton was a rusted 7-foot by 42-inch empty
storage tank. Weaver Boos sent an inspector but there was no evidence of
what had been in the tank. Testing was done with results pending.

The discovery did not halt trail construction, reported Keiser, but the
Indiana Department of Transportation, which administers the grant project,
is having trouble establishing legal right-of-way in the area of U.S. 20
where a trail bridge will be built near Howe Road to cross into the Indiana
Dunes National Lakeshore.

The bridge is important, stressed Keiser after the meeting, because trail
users can’t cross four-lane U.S. 20 at-grade.

Ind. 49 bridges
almost done

Construction on the new Indiana 49 bridge over U.S. 20 is 100 percent
complete, according to Keiser, save for minor regrading and NIPSCO’s
installation of electric service to stylized sconces and illumination of
signage on the bridge.